Facilitating with Ease! Core Skills for Facilitators, Team Leaders and Members, Managers, Consultants, and Trainers

by Bens, Ingrid

• ISBN13: 9781118107744
• ISBN10: 1118107748
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-10
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Facilitating with Ease! offers a revised edition of the best-selling resource that includes easy-to-follow instructions, techniques, and hands-on tools that team leaders, consultants, supervisors, and managers have used to learn the basics of facilitation. New to this edition is information on why and when leaders should facilitate and how to manage neutrality; new material on diversity, globalization, new technologies, employee engagement; a wealth of new tools, techniques, and tips on when leaders should facilitate and when others should do it, a tool for sharing facilitation with other; and a website that includes meeting design template, surveys, and questionnaires.

Author Biography

Ingrid Bens is a consultant and trainer whose special areas of expertise are facilitation skills, team building, conflict management, and employee and organizational change. Bens is the founder of both Participative Dynamics, a consulting firm located in Sarasota, Florida, and Facilitation Tutor, an on-line learning portal.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Understanding Facilitation

What Is Facilitation?

What Does a Facilitator Do?

What Do Facilitators Believe?

What Are Typical Facilitator Assignments?

Differentiating Between Process and Content

Facilitation Tools

Core Practices Overview

What Does Neutral Mean?

How Assertive Can a Facilitator Be?

The Language of Facilitation

Conversation Structures

Starting a Facilitation

During a Facilitation

Ending a Facilitation

The Rules of Wording

Effective Note Taking

Focus on Questions

Best and Worst Facilitation Practices

Chapter 2 Who Can Facilitate?

When to Use an Internal Facilitator

When to Use an External Facilitator

When Leaders Facilitate

Facilitation Strategies for Leaders

Best and Worst Facilitation Practices for Leaders

Facilitation as a Leadership Style

Additional Role Challenges

Chapter 3 Facilitation Stages

1. Assessment and Design

2. Feedback and Refinement

3. Final Preparation

4. Starting a Facilitation

5. During a Facilitation

6. Ending a Facilitation

7. Following Up on a Facilitation

Seeking Feedback on Your Facilitation

Chapter 4 Knowing Your Participants

Conducting an Assessment

Group Assessment Survey

Comparing Groups to Teams

Understanding Team Stages

Forming—The Honeymoon Phase

Storming—The Potential Death of the Team

Norming—The Turning Point

Performing—The Ultimate Team Growth Stage

Adjourning—The Final Stage

Facilitation Strategies Chart

Team Effectiveness Survey

Chapter 5 Creating Participation

Creating the Conditions for Full Participation

Removing the Blocks to Participation

High-Participation Techniques

Group Participation Survey

Encouraging Effective Meeting Behaviors

Group Behaviors Handout

Peer Review

Peer Review Worksheet

Chapter 6 Effective Decision Making

Know the Four Types of Conversations

The Four Levels of Empowerment

Clarifying the Four Empowerment Levels

Shifting Decision-Making Paradigms

The Decision-Making Options

Decision Options Chart

The Importance of Consensus

Things to Watch for in Decision Making

Effective Decision-Making Behaviors

Steps in the Systematic Consensus-Building Process

Consensus-Building Worksheet

Symptoms, Causes and Cures of Poor Decisions

Decision Process Survey

Chapter 7 Facilitating Conflict

Comparing Arguments and Debates

Steps in Managing Conflict

The Five Conflict Options

Conflict Management Norms

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Making Interventions

Wording an Intervention

Dealing with Resistance

The Right Approach

Common Conflict Dilemmas

The Collaborative Conflict Management Process

Interpersonal Conflict Worksheet

Group Conflict Checklist

Conflict Observation Sheet

Conflict Effectiveness Survey

Chapter 8 Meeting Management

Meetings That Work

Our Meetings Are Terrible!

The Fundamentals of Meeting Management

Sample Process Check Survey

Sample Exit Survey

Meeting Effectiveness Survey

Facilitating Virtual Meetings

Chapter 9 Process Tools for Facilitators

Visioning

Sequential Questioning

S.W.O.T.

S.O.A.R.

Facilitative Listening

Gallery Walk

Brainstorming

Written Brainstorming

Starbursting

Affinity Diagrams

Multi-Voting

Gap Analysis

Force-Field Analysis

Root-Cause Analysis

The Five Whys

Multi-Voting

Decision Grids

Needs and Offers Dialogue

Constructive Controversy

Exit Surveys

Survey Feedback

Systematic Problem Solving

Systematic Problem Solving Worksheets

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Worksheet

Chapter 10 Process Designs

Introduction to the Sample Agendas

Sample Design 1 Creating a Mission Statement and Objectives

Sample Design 2 Work Planning, Roles, and Responsibilities

Sample Design 3 Priority Setting/Cutback Planning

Sample Design 4 Inter-Group Negotiation

Sample Design 5 Finding and Solving Problems

Sample Design 6 Core Program Development

Sample Design 7 Survey Feedback/Issue Census

Sample Design 8 New Leader Integration

Sample Design 9 Transition Planning

Sample Design 10 Process Improvement

Sample Design 11 Project Retrospective

Sample Design 12 Team Adjournment

Session Planning Worksheet

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Additional Resources

Bibliography